"Let no freedom be allowed to novelty, because it is not fitting that any addition should be made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture."
-- Pope Sixtus III

Just for kicks, kiddies, substitute "murder" [or "bullying" if you're a lefist pansy] evry time you read or hear the word abortion and see how that makes your conscience feel...If you can still hear yours, that is.From AP via Yahoo News:

It's legal to get an abortion in America, but in many places it is hard and getting harder.

Just this year, 17 states set new limits on abortion; 24 did last year, according to the Guttmacher Institute,
a pro-abortion rights nonprofit whose numbers are widely respected. In
several states with the most restrictive laws, the number of abortions
has fallen slightly, pleasing abortion opponents who say the laws are
working.

Some of the states with the toughest laws are spread across a big middle swath of the country, stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

In South Dakota, which has just one abortion clinic,
lawmakers want to extend the required waiting period from two days to
three for women seeking to end a pregnancy. Next door in North Dakota,
there's only one clinic. The same is true in Mississippi, where a new
law threatens that lone clinic's existence. In several states, doctors
now must warn women about purported risks from abortion that most
scientists reject.

There are hurdles even in states like Illinois, where abortion laws are more lenient and clinics relatively plentiful.

Patients
arriving for abortions at a Granite City, Ill., clinic can expect to
find their photographs on an anti-abortion activist's website. And
before her abortion in June, a Chicago woman says her own gynecologist
refused to offer any advice, fearing that just mentioning abortion could
endanger her job at a Catholic hospital.

"The level and scope of
activity on abortion and family planning is completely unparalleled to
anything we have seen before," said Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher's states
issues manager.

"The way people are attacking abortion is
distressing because they are getting much more creative the way they're
chipping away" at it, said Dr. Renee Mestad, an OB-GYN who provides
abortions in upstate New York. Access to abortion isn't much of a
problem there. But it was where she used to work in Missouri.

"The
ideal thing would be that no one gets pregnant unless they're ready —
that all pregnancies are desired pregnancies, but that's not what
happens," Mestad said.

While surveys have consistently shown most
Americans support keeping abortion legal in certain circumstances, many
people's views are nuanced. A Gallup poll last month found nearly as
many voters consider themselves "pro-life" as those who say they are
"pro-choice."

And a new Gallup poll released Wednesday found that
nearly 40 percent of female registered voters surveyed in 12 swing
states consider abortion the most important election issue for women —
even outranking jobs.

Anti-abortion
attorney Teresa Collett, a law professor at the University of St.
Thomas in Minneapolis, says her ideal would be "to live in a country
where abortion is not even really thinkable." She'd like to see Roe vs.
Wade overturned, but even if it is, she said, the debate won't end
because it would be up to states to ban abortion.

Some seem to be moving in that direction.

—More than 30 new abortion laws have been enacted this year, a record topped only by the unprecedented 92 laws last year.

—Most
states — 41 — ban abortion after a certain stage of pregnancy,
generally around 20 weeks, unless the mother's life or health is in
danger. In many of those states, the bans are based on a challenged
premise that fetuses that early can feel pain.

—Pre-abortion
counseling is required in 35 states; 26 require waiting periods after
counseling, and in 13 states, the counseling must warn women about
alleged risks from abortion.

States within the nation's most restrictive region, the midsection, include North and South Dakota, which each have only one abortion clinic and have seen the number of abortions drop slightly since 2008.

And
they include Texas, which has the most prescriptive counseling laws —
requiring, among other things, that doctors tell women abortion is
linked with breast cancer. A group of scientists convened by the
National Cancer Institute in 2003 concluded abortion did not raise the
risk of breast cancer.

A Texas law passed last year requires women
to get an ultrasound and their doctors to describe the fetus. Texas
abortions also have dropped every year since 2008.

Next door, in
Oklahoma, state authorities are fighting court action blocking a law
with similar requirements. Collett, the anti-abortion attorney, has
helped Oklahoma defend the 2010 law. She says it might lead some women
to change their minds.

While records from several states with
restrictive laws show fewer abortions in recent years, whether there has
been a true decline is uncertain. Not all states track the rate — the
number of abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age.

Pregnancies are
down, too, in many states, a development some experts link to a weak
economy. The most recent national abortion statistics are from 2008. The
trend shows the number and rate of abortions have generally leveled off
after a long period of decline.

In South Dakota,
a new law facing a legal challenge would impose a three-day waiting
period. During that time, a woman would have to visit a crisis pregnancy
center discouraging abortion. Utah is the only other state with a
waiting period that long, but it doesn't require such specific
counseling.

In July, a federal appeals court in South Dakota
upheld a 2005 law requiring doctors to warn that abortions increase
risks for suicide. Scientific research disputes this.

Dr. Carol
Ball, at the state's lone abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, says
information she's required to tell patients is "of questionable
validity" and designed to make them feel shame and guilt.

"They're
throwing hurdles in front of us to see when we stop jumping in front of
them. If I stop, it means they win and women of South Dakota lose, and
I'm not willing to let that happen," Ball said.

Across the state
to the west in Rapid City, Dr. Marvin Buehner cares for women with
high-risk pregnancies and does a few abortions each year when pregnancy
endangers the patient's life.

He's required to describe each fetal stage and explain that abortion ends the life of a separate human being — even to women whose fetuses have deadly abnormalities and won't survive.

"It's just incredible," Buehner said.

Of course! Because kids with handicaps and diseases and pimples and such are subhuman monsters and need to be destroyed so the normals won't feel uncomfortable around them. Thanks, Dr. Mengele.

One
of his patients is a 31-year-old woman who gave birth Oct. 14 to a
stillborn baby with a rare, inherited and ultimately fatal condition
called achondrogenesis, which causes severe deformities. She had two
previous babies with the same condition. One was also stillborn, the
other died an hour after birth.

She had considered abortion when
tests showed this baby, too, was doomed, but couldn't afford the cost.
It would have involved traveling nearly six hours to the Sioux Falls
clinic. And because her life wasn't at risk, Medicaid in her state
wouldn't pay for it, even though it was clear her baby would be born
dead or die shortly after birth.

In Illinois, laws are relatively
lenient. The Hope Clinic in Granite City in Southern Illinois caters to
women from neighboring states like Missouri and Kentucky where it's
harder to get an abortion.

Tamara Threlkeld, the clinic's
executive director, said despite increasingly difficult access, Hope
Clinic has not seen any increase in patients with later-term pregnancies
seeking abortions.

Though you'd expect to see that trend, "they're able to find us" early on, she said.Most
abortions occur in the first 12 weeks when the embryo is about the size
of a lima bean. Major organs have begun developing, but the embryo at
this stage looks nothing like the photographs of mangled fetuses that
abortion foes promote. Those pictures generally represent late-term
abortions, those after five months, which account for less than 2
percent of abortions.

Women who visit Hope Clinic can expect to
find Angela Michael. She is a long-shot Democratic candidate seeking to
unseat longtime GOP Congressman John Shimkus in Illinois' 15th district.

Michael
is a retired obstetrics nurse who has run TV commercials showing
graphic images of dismembered fetuses. She regularly pickets outside the
clinic, encouraging patients to change their minds. She also
photographs them and posts their pictures on her website.

She said she has compassion for these women, but considers abortion murder.The
photographs she promotes may not depict typical abortions, but Michael
says they sometimes work to persuade women to continue their
pregnancies.

"I really didn't go into this race with the hopes of winning. My point was to be the messenger" against abortion, she said.

Some
Hope Clinic patients come from Kentucky, where the number of abortions
has steadily dropped from almost 4,400 in 2007 to roughly 3,900 in 2010.

Kentucky's only two abortion clinics
are in Louisville and Lexington, an hour apart and several hours from
some of the state's most impoverished counties. Kentucky requires a
24-hour waiting period, and five of the seven surrounding states also
have waiting periods. Public funding of abortions in Kentucky is limited
to cases of rape, incest or when pregnancy endangers a woman's life.

Mississippi has similar restrictions and only one abortion clinic,
in Jackson, threatened with closure because of a new law requiring
providers to have local hospital admitting privileges. State Health
Department data show Mississippi abortions have steadily dropped, from
nearly 3,000 in 2007 to about 2,200 in 2011. Meanwhile, the number of
Mississippi residents seeking abortions out of state grew from fewer
than 2,000 a decade ago to at least 3,000 in more recent years,
according to data from the state Department of Health.

"Never
have times been this restrictive," said Dr. Willie Parker, a
Washington, D.C.-based physician who since June has traveled
periodically to Mississippi to provide abortions.

Parker
said he's often struck by the hardship many women face, and told of a
33-year-old mother of four who lost a child to cancer two years ago. She
was unemployed and still grieving when she learned she was pregnant
again. The woman traveled three hours to the Jackson clinic to get
required counseling in June. Then she had to return the next week for
the abortion.

"She told me she couldn't afford to have another child financially or emotionally," Parker said.

He said he doesn't know whether she was using birth control; he doesn't usually ask.

"All
I need is to make sure that they're certain" about abortion. Most "have
already been thinking about this decision for weeks on end," he said.

The United States had an unmanned Predator drone over its consulate
in Benghazi during the attack that slaughtered four Americans — which
should have led to a quicker military response, it was revealed
yesterday.

The network reported that the drone and other reconnaissance aircraft
observed the final hours of the hours-long siege on Sept. 11 —
obtaining information that should have spurred swift action.

But as Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three colleagues were
killed by terrorists armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, Defense Department officials were too slow to send in the
troops, Berntsen said.

“They made zero adjustments in this. You find a way to make this happen,” he fumed.

“There isn’t a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments.”

The Pentagon said it moved a team of special operators from Central
Europe to Sigonella, Italy — about an hour flight from Libya — but gave
no other details.

Fighter jets and Specter AC-130 gunships — which could have been used
to help disperse the bloodthirsty mob — were also stationed at three
nearby bases, sources told the network.

This Pennsylvania survey of 500 Likely Voters was conducted on October
9, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5
percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all
Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Scott Rasmussen is as close to impartial as pollsters get, kiddies.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows
Mitt Romney attracting support from 50% of voters nationwide, while
President Obama earns the vote from 46%. One percent (1%) prefers some
other candidate, and two percent (2%) are undecided.

Other than brief convention bounces, this is the first time either
candidate has led by more than three points in months. See daily tracking history.

Romney attracts support from 89% of Republican voters. The president
earns the vote from 82% of Democrats. Among those not affiliated with
either major party, the GOP challenger leads by nine.

These updates are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported
on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, virtually all of the
interviews for today’s update were completed before the end of last
night’s final presidential debate. It will take a few days to see if the
debate had a significant impact on the race.

The second presidential debate doesn’t appear to have made a difference
in Rasmussen Reports’ first post-debate look at the race in Ohio. It’s
still a toss-up.
The latest telephone survey of Likely Ohio Voters, taken last night,
shows President Obama with 49% support to Mitt Romney’s 48%. One
percent (1%) prefers another candidate, and two percent (2%) are still
undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Ohio was conducted on October 17,
2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4
percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all
Rasmussen Reports surveys is onducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Mitt Romney has now hit the 50% mark in Virginia.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Virginia Voters,
taken two nights after the second presidential debate, shows Romney
with 50% support to President Obama’s 47%. Two percent (2%) remain
undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Virginia, considered a critical state to both candidates’ political fortunes, remains a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Electoral College Projections.

A week ago,
Romney led 49% to 47% in Virginia. Prior to this survey, the candidates
have been within two points or less of each other in every survey here
since April.

Ninety-four percent (94%) of likely voters in the Old Dominion say they
are certain to vote in this election. Among these voters, Romney leads
52% to 47%.
Among the 88% of voters in the state who say they’ve already decided whom they will vote for, it’s Romney 51%, Obama 49%.

Romney has small leads among both male and female voters in the state.
Voters not affiliated with either of the major political parties prefer
the Republican challenger by a modest 49% to 45% margin.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The full Swing State tracking update offers Rasmussen Reader subscribers
a combined view of the results from 11 key states won by President
Obama in 2008 and thought to be competitive in 2012. The states
collectively hold 146 Electoral College votes and include Colorado,
Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. If you do not already have a
Rasmussen Reader account, subscribe now.

In the 11 swing states, Mitt Romney earns 50% of the vote to Obama’s
45%. Two percent (2%) like another candidate in the race, and four
percent (4%) are undecided.

This is now the third time Romney has hit the 50% mark in the combined
swing states in the past four days and is the biggest lead either
candidate has held in nearly three weeks. This survey is conducted on a
rolling seven-day basis, and as a result, virtually all of the
interviews for today’s update were completed before the end of last
night’s presidential debate. Romney has now held a modest lead for 12 of
the last 15 days; Obama was ahead twice, and the candidates ran even
once.

In 2008, Obama won these states by a combined margin of 53% to 46%, virtually identical to his national margin.

Romney now leads by 16 points among male voters in the swing states and trails by three points among female voters.

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection,
publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events
in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence,
we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions,
sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics
provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day.
If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a
daily update newsletter,
the Rasmussen Report on radio
and other media outlets.

I want to make special mention of two of these holy people to you kiddies because they were both young when they died. Saint Pedro
Calungsod was 18 when he was martyred and SaintKateri Tekakwitha, Protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, was 24 when she died. Their short lives prove that young people of faith are capable of great things.

"May the witness of these new saints[...]speak today to the whole Church"

VATICAN
CITY, OCT. 21, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is the translation of the Pope
Benedict XVI's homily at the Canonization Mass of Seven New Saints.

Dear Brother Bishops,

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today
the Church listens again to these words of Jesus, spoken by the Lord
during his journey to Jerusalem, where he was to accomplish the mystery
of his passion, death and resurrection. They are words which enshrine
the meaning of Christ's mission on earth, marked by his sacrifice, by
his total self-giving. On this third Sunday of October, on which we
celebrate World Mission Sunday, the Church listens to them with special
attention and renews her conviction that she should always be fully
dedicated to serve mankind and the Gospel, after the example of the One
who gave himself up even to the sacrifice of his life.

I extend
warm greetings to all of you who fill Saint Peter's Square, especially
the official delegations and the pilgrims who have come to celebrate the
seven new saints. I greet with affection the Cardinals and Bishops who,
during these days, are taking part in the Synodal Assembly on the New
Evangelization. The coincidence between this ecclesiastical meeting and
World Mission Sunday is a happy one; and the word of God that we have
listened to sheds light on both subjects. It shows how to be
evangelizers, called to bear witness and to proclaim the Christian
message, configuring ourselves to Christ and following his same way of
life. This is true both for the mission ad Gentes and for the new
evangelization in places with ancient Christian roots.

The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mk 10:45)

These
words were the blueprint for living of the seven Blessed men and women
that the Church solemnly enrols this morning in the glorious ranks of
the saints. With heroic courage they spent their lives in total
consecration to the Lord and in the generous service of their brethren.
They are sons and daughters of the Church who chose a life of service
following the Lord. Holiness always rises up in the Church from the
well-spring of the mystery of redemption, as foretold by the prophet
Isaiah in the first reading: the Servant of the Lord is the righteous
one who "shall make many to be accounted as righteous; and he shall bear
their iniquities" (Is 53:11); this Servant is Jesus Christ, crucified,
risen and living in glory. Today's canonization is an eloquent
confirmation of this mysterious saving reality. The tenacious profession
of faith of these seven generous disciples of Christ, their
configuration to the Son of Man shines out brightly today in the whole
Church.

[in French] Jacques Berthieu, born in 1838 in France, was
passionate about Jesus Christ at an early age. During his parish
ministry, he had the burning desire to save souls. Becoming a Jesuit, he
wished to journey through the world for the glory of God. A tireless
pastor on the island of Sainte Marie, then in Madagascar, he struggled
against injustice while bringing succour to the poor and sick. The
Malagasies thought of him as a priest come down from heaven, saying, You
are our "father and mother!" He made himself all things to all men,
drawing from prayer and his love of the sacred heart of Jesus the human
and priestly force to face martyrdom in 1896. He died, saying "I prefer
to die rather than renounce my faith". Dear friends, may the life of
this evangelizer be an encouragement and a model for priests that, like
him, they will be men of God! May his example aid the many Christians of
today persecuted for their faith! In this Year of Faith, may his
intercession bring forth many fruits for Madagascar and the African
Continent! May God bless the Malagasy people!

[in English] Pedro
Calungsod was born around the year sixteen fifty-four, in the Visayas
region of the Philippines. His love for Christ inspired him to train as a
catechist with the Jesuit missionaries there. In sixteen sixty-eight,
along with other young catechists, he accompanied Father Diego Luís de
San Vitores to the Marianas Islands in order to evangelize the Chamorro
people. Life there was hard and the missionaries also faced persecution
arising from envy and slander. Pedro, however, displayed deep faith and
charity and continued to catechize his many converts, giving witness to
Christ by a life of purity and dedication to the Gospel. Uppermost was
his desire to win souls for Christ, and this made him resolute in
accepting martyrdom. He died on the second of April, sixteen
seventy-two. Witnesses record that Pedro could have fled for safety but
chose to stay at Father Diego's side. The priest was able to give Pedro
absolution before he himself was killed. May the example and courageous
witness of Pedro Calungsod inspire the dear people of the Philippines to
announce the Kingdom bravely and to win souls for God!

[in
Italian] Giovanni Battista Piamarta, priest of the Diocese of Brescia,
was a great apostle of charity and of young people. He raised awareness
of the need for a cultural and social presence of Catholicism in the
modern world, and so he dedicated himself to the Christian, moral and
professional growth of the younger generations with an enlightened input
of humanity and goodness. Animated by unshakable faith in divine
providence and by a profound spirit of sacrifice, he faced difficulties
and fatigue to breathe life into various apostolic works, including the
Artigianelli Institute, Queriniana Publishers, the Congregation of the
Holy Family of Nazareth for men, and for women the Congregation of the
Humble Sister Servants of the Lord. The secret of his intense and busy
life is found in the long hours he gave to prayer. When he was
overburdened with work, he increased the length of his encounter, heart
to heart, with the Lord. He preferred to pause before the Blessed
Sacrament, meditating upon the passion, death and resurrection of
Christ, to gain spiritual fortitude and return to gaining people's
hearts, especially the young, to bring them back to the sources of life
with fresh pastoral initiatives.

[in Spanish] "May your love be
upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you" (Ps 32:22). With these
words, the liturgy invites us to make our own this hymn to God, creator
and provider, accepting his plan into our lives. María Carmelo Sallés y
Barangueras, a religious born in Vic in Spain in 1848, did just so.
Filled with hope in spite of many trials, she, on seeing the progress of
the Congregation of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching,
which she founded in 1892, was able to sing with the Mother of God, "His
mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation" (Lk
1:50). Her educational work, entrusted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
continues to bear abundant fruit among young people through the generous
dedication of her daughters who, like her, entrust themselves to God
for whom all is possible. [in English] I now turn to Marianne Cope, born
in eighteen thirty-eight in Heppenheim, Germany. Only one year old when
taken to the United States, in eighteen sixty-two she entered the Third
Order Regular of Saint Francis at Syracuse, New York. Later, as
Superior General of her congregation, Mother Marianne willingly embraced
a call to care for the lepers of Hawaii after many others had refused.
She personally went, with six of her fellow sisters, to manage a
hospital on Oahu, later founding Malulani Hospital on Maui and opening a
home for girls whose parents were lepers. Five years after that she
accepted the invitation to open a home for women and girls on the island
of Molokai itself, bravely going there herself and effectively ending
her contact with the outside world. There she looked after Father
Damien, already famous for his heroic work among the lepers, nursed him
as he died and took over his work among male lepers. At a time when
little could be done for those suffering from this terrible disease,
Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage and enthusiasm. She is a
shining and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic
nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved Saint Francis.

[in
English] Kateri Tekakwitha was born in today's New York state in
sixteen fifty-six to a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother
who gave to her a sense of the living God. She was baptized at twenty
years of age and, to escape persecution, she took refuge in Saint
Francis Xavier Mission near Montreal. There she worked, faithful to the
traditions of her people, although renouncing their religious
convictions until her death at the age of twenty-four. Leading a simple
life, Katerir emained faithful to her love for Jesus, to prayer and to
daily Mass. Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God.
She lived a life radiant with faith and purity.

[in French]
Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life in spite of the
absence of external help and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual
in her culture. In her, faith and culture enrich each other! May her
example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who
we are. Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the first native
American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the first
nations and in all of North America! May God bless the first nations!

[in
German] Anna Schaeffer, from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to
enter a missionary order. She came from a poor background so, in order
to earn the dowry needed for acceptance into the cloister, she worked as
a maid. One day she suffered a terrible accident and received incurable
burns on her legs which forced her to be bed-ridden for the rest of her
life. So her sick-bed became her cloister cell and her suffering a
missionary service. She struggled for a time to accept her fate, but
then understood her situation as a loving call from the crucified One to
follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she became an untiring
intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God's love for the many who sought
her counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and suffering, of sacrifice
and expiation, be a shining example for believers in her homeland, and
may her intercession strengthen the Christian hospice movement in its
beneficial activity.

Dear brothers and sisters, these new saints,
different in origin, language, nationality and social condition, are
united among themselves and with the whole People of God in the mystery
of salvation of Christ the Redeemer. With them, we too, together with
the Synod Fathers from all parts of the world, proclaim to the Lord in
the words of the psalm that he "is our help and our shield" and we
invoke him saying, "may your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all
our hope in you" (Ps 32:20.22). May the witness of these new saints, and
their lives generously spent for love of Christ, speak today to the
whole Church, and may their intercession strengthen and sustain her in
her mission to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world.

Obama, Romney take turns twisting the facts in Florida on foreign policy.

Posted onOctober 23, 2012

Summary

In the third and final Obama-Romney debate, the candidates again
contradicted each other, while each offered incorrect or twisted factual
claims.

President Obama erred when he accused Mitt Romney of saying during
the 2008 campaign that “we should ask Pakistan for permission” before
going into that country to kill or capture terrorists. What Romney
said was that he’d “keep our options quiet.”

Obama wrongly accused Romney of not telling the truth when Romney
said “you and I agreed” some U.S. troops should be left in Iraq. In
fact, the president tried and failed to negotiate an agreement to keep
3,000 to 4,000 support troops there; Romney said he would have left
10,000 to 30,000.

Obama said unemployment among military veterans is lower than for
the general population. That’s true for veterans generally but not for
veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Romney was wrong when he repeated a claim that our “Navy is smaller
now than any time since 1917.” Actually, there are slightly more ships
active now than at the low point under President George W. Bush.

Obama claimed the record would back him up when he accused Romney of
opposing any federal “help” or “assistance” for troubled automakers.
In fact, the record shows Romney supported federal loan guarantees.

Romney repeated his claim that the president undertook “an apology
tour … criticizing America” after Obama became president. Obama called
that “probably the biggest whopper that’s been told” during the entire
campaign. And in fact, our own analysis, and that of other
fact-checkers, found no “apology” in the president’s speeches.

Romney claimed credit for top scores by Massachusetts
grade-schoolers while he was governor. But they tested at the top, or
near it, before Romney took office.

Obama wrongly claimed Romney called Russia the “biggest
geopolitical threat facing America.” Actually, Romney called Russia a
“foe” and not a “threat.” He said “the greatest threat that the world
faces is a nuclear Iran.”

Romney said the federal debt to “other people” is $16 trillion,
which isn’t correct. The debt owed to the public is $11 trillion, and
the figure he gave includes money the government owes to itself.

One issue on which the two men no longer seem to disagree is pulling
out all U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Romney
had previously criticized the president for setting a date, and later
modified his position to say he agreed with the president’s timeline
but would be guided by military commanders and events “on the ground.”
This time, he dropped all qualifiers and said flatly, “[W]hen I’m
president, we’ll make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014.”

Obama claimed that during the 2008 campaign Romney said “we should
ask Pakistan for permission” before going into that country to kill or
capture terrorists. That’s not true. Romney said taking unilateral
action in Pakistan should be an option, but criticized Obama for
publicly talking about it, saying, “we keep our options quiet.”

Obama: When it comes to going after
Osama bin Laden, you said, well, any president would make that call. But
when you were a candidate in 2008 — as I was — and I said, if I got
bin Laden in our sights, I would take that shot, you said we shouldn’t
move heaven and earth to get one man, and you said we should ask
Pakistan for permission. And if we had asked Pakistan for permission, we
would not have gotten him. And it was worth moving heaven and earth to
get him.

Obama distorted two facts here. We’ll first address the one about Pakistan.As a senator and candidate for president, Obama said he would attack “high-value” terrorists in Pakistan with or without the approval of its then-president, Pervez Musharraf.

Obama, Aug. 1, 2007: If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.

In a radio interview
two days later, Romney called Obama’s comment “ill-considered.” He went
on to say: “I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to
enter an ally of ours. … I don’t think those kinds of comments help in
this effort to draw more friends to our effort.”The Obama campaign cites this as evidence that Romney would seek
permission to attack terrorists in Pakistan. But it’s not the whole
story.A couple of days later, Romney was asked at a Republican debate in Iowa
what he would do if the CIA came to him and said it had Osama bin Laden
in its sights but Musharraf said the U.S. could not enter Pakistan.
Romney said going into Pakistan without permission would be an option,
but criticized Obama for saying so.

Romney, Aug. 5, 2007: It’s wrong for a
person running for the president of the United States to get on TV and
say, “We’re going to go into your country unilaterally.” Of course,
America always maintains our option to do whatever we think is in the
best interests of America. But we don’t go out and say, “Ladies and
gentlemen of Germany, if ever there was a problem in your country, we
didn’t think you were doing the right thing, we reserve the right to
come in and get them out.”We don’t say those things. We keep our options quiet. We do not go
out and say to a nation which is working with us, where we have
collaborated and they are our friend and we’re trying to support
Musharraf and strengthen him and his nation, that instead that we intend
to go in there and potentially bring out a unilateral attack.

Obama also fails to tell the whole story when he remarked that Romney
once said “we shouldn’t move heaven and earth to get one man,”
referring to bin Laden. As we wrote after the vice presidential debate, Romney said in 2007 that the U.S. shouldn’t focus on one man, but rather needed a “broader strategy to defeat the Islamic jihad movement.”

U.S. Troops in Iraq

The president went too far when he accused Romney of not telling the
truth about Obama’s position on leaving a residual force of U.S. troops
in Iraq.

Romney: [W]ith regards to Iraq, you and I agreed, I believe, that there should have been a status of forces agreement. Did you…Obama: That’s not true. … [W]hat I would not have
done is left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. That
certainly would not help us in the Middle East.

Obama did indeed seek to leave several thousand U.S. troops in Iraq,
and disagreed with Romney only over the size of the residual force.
The administration tried to negotiate a status of forces agreement with
the Iraqi government to leave 3,000 to 4,000 troops there at the
time that negotiations broke down over the Iraqis’ refusal to grant
legal immunity to remaining U.S. troops.As the last troops were leaving in December 2011, Romney said on Fox News, “[W]e should have left 10-, 20-, 30-thousand personnel there to help transition to the Iraqis’ own military capabilities.”

Smallest Navy Since 1917?

Romney repeated the claim that our “Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917,” which isn’t technically true. There were 342 total active ships as of April 6, 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I. There were 282 active duty ships as of April 2012, according to a Congressional Research Service report in August. That’s down from the Naval History and Heritage Command’s count of 285
as of September 2011. However, 282 ships is the same number in service
during George W. Bush’s last year in office, and a slight increase over
the number in 2007, when the size of the fleet was actually at its
lowest.More important, ships today can do more than they used to, so having
fewer doesn’t necessarily translate to a weaker Navy. In April, Navy
Secretary Ray Mabus said that comparing today’s ships to those of years past is “like comparing the telegraph to the smartphone.” Navy officials presented a plan to Congress
back in March projecting that the size of the Naval fleet could
increase to 300 ships by 2019. That’s the amount that Mabus said the
Navy needs to meet its defense needs.

Veterans’ Unemployment

Obama claimed that unemployment among veterans is lower now than it
is among the general population, which is correct. But that’s only true
for all veterans. The rate among veterans of America’s most recent wars
— in Iraq and Afghanistan — is currently higher than that of the
general population.The president also may have misled some listeners when he said the
veterans’ rate “was higher when I took office.” Higher than what? The
rate for veterans was higher then than it is now, but it was lower than
the rate for the general population both then and now.

Obama: The first lady has done great
work with an organization called Joining Forces putting our veterans
back to work. And as a consequence, veterans’ unemployment is actually
now lower than general population, it was higher when I came into
office.

Figures for veterans aren’t available on a seasonally adjusted basis,
so to compare like to like we’ve looked at unadjusted figures for
both. The unemployment rate of the general population was 8.5 percent
(not seasonally adjusted) in January 2009, the month of Obama’s
inauguration. The unemployment rate among veterans was lower — at 7.4 percent that month — not higher as Obama said.Both rates increased — and peaked — during Obama’s term. The unadjusted rate topped out among the general population at 10.6 percent in January 2010 and for veterans at 9.9 percent in January 2011.As of September, the unadjusted rates shrunk to 7.6 percent for the general population and 6.7 percent
for veterans. But the rate among veterans of America’s most recent
wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan — remains higher than that of the general
population, at 9.7 percent. It had peaked at 15.2 percent in January 2011.

Leaving Afghanistan

One issue on which Romney no longer seems to disagree with Obama is pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Romney: [W]e’re going to be finished by 2014. And when I’m president, we’ll make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014.

Later Romney added that the Afghans “will be ready by the end of 2014″ to take over their own security.That’s a change. In the past, Romney had said that announcing a
specific date for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops was among
Obama’s “biggest mistakes.” He later told ABC News that he also would adhere to “the same time frame the
president is speaking of” for turning over responsibility to Afghan
forces by the end of 2014, but qualified that by saying withdrawal
depended on what military commanders tell him and on circumstances “on
the ground.”This time there were no such qualifiers. Romney said flatly:
“[W]e’re going to be able to make that transition by the end of — of
2014. So our troops’ll come home at that point.” And for the record,
both Obama and Romney have left the door open for leaving a residual
force of support troops behind, if the Afghans agree.

Bankruptcy Back-and-Forth

Obama got it wrong when he insisted over and over that Romney never
advocated “help” or “government assistance” for automakers if they went
through bankruptcy. In fact, Romney called for a “managed bankruptcy”
that would include federal “guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing,”
which qualifies as indirect government assistance by any definition.
What Romney opposed was the direct federal aid Obama implemented.Here’s an edited version of the candidates’ long and contentious disagreement:

Romney: I said they need — these
companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy, and in that process
they can get government help and government guarantees, but they need to
go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess cost and the debt burden
that they’d — they’d built up. …Obama: Governor Romney, that’s not what you said. …Romney: You can take a look at the op-ed.Obama: You did not say that you would provide, Governor, help. …Romney: You know, I’m — I’m still speaking. I said
that we would provide guarantees and — and that was what was able to
allow these companies to go through bankruptcy, to come out of
bankruptcy. Under no circumstances would I do anything other than to
help this industry get on its feet. And the idea that has been suggested
that I would liquidate the industry — of course not. Of course not. …Obama: The — look, I think anybody out there can
check the record. Governor Romney, you keep on trying to, you know,
airbrush history here. You were very clear that you would not provide
government assistance to the U.S. auto companies even if they went
through bankruptcy. You said that they could get it in the private
marketplace. That wasn’t true. They would have gone through a –Romney: You’re wrong. You’re wrong, Mr. President.Obama: I — no, I am not wrong.Romney: You’re wrong.Obama: I am not wrong. And –Romney: People can look it up. You’re right.Obama: People will look it up.Romney: Good.

In fact, people can easily look it up. Romney’s 2008 op-ed, published in the New York Times with the well-known headline “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,”
said he was against the government bailout. But Romney wrote: “A
managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring
the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess
labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should
provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers
that their warranties are not at risk.”

Apology Tour, Again

What night of presidential foreign policy debate would be complete
without the rehashed claim from Romney that Obama embarked on an
“apology tour” of the world soon after being elected president.

Romney: And then the president began
what I’ve called an apology tour of going to — to various nations in
the Middle East and — and criticizing America. I think they looked at
that and saw weakness. … And I think that when the president said he
was going to create daylight between ourselves and Israel that they
noticed that as well.

Obama retorted that “[n]othing Gov. Romney just said is true,
starting with this notion of me apologizing. This has been probably the
biggest whopper that’s been told during the course of this campaign,
and every fact-checker and every reporter that’s looked at it … has
said this is not true.”Obama is certainly right about the assessment of fact-checkers,
including FactCheck.org. We pored over the speeches that Romney cited
in his book “No Apology” to back up his claim that Obama went on an
“apology tour,” and we concluded that “we didn’t see that any of them rise to the level of an actual apology.” Our fact-checking colleagues at PolitiFact and the Washington PostFact Checker reached the same conclusion: Obama never apologized.During the debate, Romney defended his “apology” claim:

Romney: Mr. President, the reason I
call it an apology tour is because you went to the Middle East and you
flew to Egypt and to Saudi Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq. And, by the
way, you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region, but you went
to the other nations. And by the way, they noticed that you skipped
Israel. And then in those nations and on Arabic TV you said that
America had been dismissive and derisive. You said that on occasion
America had dictated to other nations. Mr. President, America has not
dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations from dictators.

Obama’s “dismissive” and “derisive” comments were not actually made in the Middle East, as Romney said, but rather during a speech Obama gave in Strasbourg, France, in April 2009.Here’s the fuller context of those remarks (again, made to a European audience, not Middle Eastern):

Obama, April 3, 2009: I know that there
have been honest disagreements over policy, but we also know that
there’s something more that has crept into our relationship. In America,
there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.
Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with
you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has
shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual
but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America
so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans
choose to blame America for much of what’s bad.On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too
common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They
threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more
isolated.

Obama, June 4, 2009: The relationship
between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and
cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently,
tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities
to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries
were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own
aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and
globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the
traditions of Islam.Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but
potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the
continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against
civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile
not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights.
All this has bred more fear and more mistrust.So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will
empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote
conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people
achieve justice and prosperity. And this cycle of suspicion and discord
must end.I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United
States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and
mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are
not exclusive and need not be in competition.

As the fuller context shows, Obama spoke about tensions between the
U.S. and the Muslim world, and placed blame on both sides. And then he
called for a “new beginning.” That’s not an apology.Romney’s claim that Obama “said he was going to create daylight
between ourselves and Israel” is also not as clear-cut as Romney
suggests.The source of this quote is a Washington Post story in July that reconstructed a private meeting between Obama and a dozen Jewish leaders on July 13, 2009.According to people at the meeting, the Post reported, Obama
talked about the relationship between Israel and the U.S. under the
George W. Bush administration and said, “During those eight years, there
was no space between us and Israel, and what did we get from that?
When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that
erodes our credibility with the Arab states.”The story goes on to say that Obama told the Jewish leaders that he
“wanted to restore the United States’ reputation as a credible mediator.
To do so, he believed that he needed to regain Arab trust — and talk
tough to Israel, publicly and privately.”The Post story later quotes Deputy National Security Adviser
Ben Rhodes explaining Obama’s motivation: “The case he was trying to
make was that the United States will be a better partner to Israel if it
has more credibility with the Arab states, that we will be a better,
more useful friend to Israel if we have more friends in the Arab world.”The Obama administration has neither confirmed nor denied
the veracity of the “daylight” quote. Nonetheless, it is a second-hand
quote from an anonymous source, and the context of its meaning —
explained in the same Post story — was distorted by Romney during the debate.

We’re No. 1

Romney boasted that Massachusetts’ fourth and eighth graders tested
first in the nation in reading and math after he became governor. But
Massachusetts students had tested at the top or near it before Romney
took office.Obama countered that it was a policy put in place a decade earlier
that caused the high scores. The state did pass a landmark 1993 law that
emphasized testing and new curriculum, and increased school funding.

Romney: While I was governor, I was
proud that our fourth graders came out number one of all 50 states in
English and then also in math, and our eighth graders number one in
English and also in math — first time one state had been number one in
all four measures. How did we do that? Well, Republicans and Democrats
came together on a bipartisan basis to put in place education that
focused on having great teachers in the classroom. And that was —Obama: Ten years earlier —Romney: That was — that was what allowed us to become the number one state in the nation. And this is — and we were —Obama: But that was 10 years before you took office.

Romney was governor of Massachusetts from January 2003 to January 2007. The 2003 test scores
from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “The
Nation’s Report Card,” put Massachusetts students in first place for
reading and math in fourth grade and reading in eighth grade. It was
second for eighth grade math. And it tied with several other states in
all categories. In 2005, eighth grade math scores moved up to first —
and, as Romney said, the state was ranked first in all categories (tied with a few other states in the math categories).The state’s 2002 reading scores and 2000 math scores were also at or near the top of the nation — and on par with several other states.Romney said it was a “bipartisan” effort “that focused on having
great teachers” that boosted test scores. But scores were already high
in Massachusetts compared with other states. (And they’ve remained there since Romney left office.) Obama said it was an effort “10 years before you took office,” and there’s evidence for that. The Boston Globesaid a 1993 education law “is largely credited” for the high scores.The Christian Science Monitor also recently looked at Massachusetts’ success in education and pointed to the 1993 law that emphasized testing.

Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 5, 2012: Leaders
from state government, education, and business came together to form
the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, creating high standards
and curriculum frameworks in math, reading, social studies, and
science, as well as related tests for fourth-, eighth-, and
10th-graders – the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System
(MCAS). …The emphasis on high-stakes testing led some teachers and parents to
protest, worried that it would nudge borderline students into dropping
out – a debate that later resonated nationally because of the testing
regimen established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. …After the new system took hold, significant learning gains among
Massachusetts students were reflected in both state and national tests.

Obama also claimed that Romney “cut education spending when you came
into office.” That’s true, though it’s worth pointing out that the
state faced a budget gap and the Democratic Legislature proposed cuts,
too. Our colleagues at Politifact documented a similar Obama claim on this point.

No. 1 Threat?

In one of his first zingers of the night, Obama mocked Romney’s
foreign policy chops, saying that Romney once called Russia — “not al
Qaeda” — the “biggest geopolitical threat facing America.” We score
this one for Romney.

Obama: Governor Romney, I’m glad that
you recognize that al Qaeda’s a threat because a few months ago when
you were asked, what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,
you said Russia — not al Qaeda, you said Russia. And the 1980s are now
calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the
Cold War’s been over for 20 years.

Romney responded by saying that his words had been twisted.

Romney: First of all, Russia, I indicated, is a geopolitical foe, not –Obama: Number one –Romney: Excuse me. It’s a geopolitical foe. And I
said in the same paragraph, I said, and Iran is the greatest national
security threat we face. Russia does continue to battle us in the U.N.
time and time again. I have clear eyes on this.

And so, to the transcript of an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier this year:

Romney, March 26, 2012: [T]his is to Russia, this is, without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe. …Blitzer: But you think Russia is a bigger foe right
now than, let’s say, Iran or China or North Korea? Is that – is that
what you’re suggesting, Governor?Romney: Well, I’m saying in terms of a geopolitical
opponent, the nation that lines up with the world’s worst actors. Of
course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A
nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough.

So, this debate kerfuffle comes down to a distinction between biggest
“foe” and biggest “threat.” Obama said Romney called Russia “the
biggest geopolitical threat facing America … not al Qaeda.” Romney
called Russia “our No. 1 geopolitical foe.” And Romney is correct that
he quickly noted in the same interview that “the greatest threat that
the world faces is a nuclear Iran.”

Debt to ‘Other People’

Romney overstated the size of the federal debt held by the public. In
talking about China, Romney said “we owe them a trillion dollars and
owe other people $16 trillion in total, including them.” It’s true that
we owe China $1.2 trillion, but the U.S. owes “other people” a total of $11.3 trillion, including China.Romney mixed up his numbers. The $16 trillion refers to total federal
debt — including how much the government owes itself for such things
as the Social Security trust funds.

Terrorism in 2000 Debates

Romney also was a bit off when he claimed, “In the 2000 debates,
there was no mention of terrorism.” Actually, Al Gore made one
glancing mention during the third presidential debate with George W. Bush on Oct. 17, 2000.A member of the audience asked the candidates, “What would make you
the best candidate in office during the Middle East crisis?” And Gore
responded by saying that as a member of the House Intelligence
Committee he’d become familiar with “how we can diffuse these tensions
and deal with non-proliferation and deal with the problems of
terrorism and these new weapons of mass destruction.”– by Brooks Jackson, Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley, D’Angelo Gore and Ben Finley

About Me

First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct.
"My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up.
What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.